A few words: Cook them well. There are a lot of fun zoonotic parasites that freshwater snails can carry (liver flukes anyone?). That's one thing that
having to sit through parasitology etc... classes teaches you; just cook stuff.

Look up your endangered species first before you go chowing down. Some stuff in freshwater like the Pearly Cats paw mussel are endangered and besides the
ethical implications of eating one, if the law catches you, you can get stuck with a hefty fine.

Many freshwater clams are edible, but I have never found any that were tasty enough to want to eat them. Clams are filter feeders and concentrate all the muck
in the water.
This means any pollution and the swampy smelling stuff. Crayfish are tasty little things though if you just cook and eat the tails. I have not tried snails,
they don't get very big here and seem more bother than they are worth.
Clams do make very good bait for fish and some of the animals that live near the water.

Otter makes a good point about how some of them are endangered species.
The way they concentrate both bacterial and chemical pollutants is something else to think about too.

NewCaveMan wrote:
are there any clams or shelled animals that are poisonous??

If they are in polluted water they concentrate the toxins. This includes chemical pollution and bacterial pollution from sewage.
Ocean shellfish like clams and oysters concentrate the red tide algae toxins.
So the answer is that some clams can be deadly poisonous depending on what is in the water.

I ate freshwater clams for years in illinois. But you only eat the wavy part called the foot. Don't eat them as you would oysters by mowing down the whole
thing. Green stuff comes out your mouth. aka SHIT lol.. Don't ask me how I know I was really young hahahahahaha. You have to experiment with them too. If
you under cook them they suck. If you over cook them they are like a piece of tire in your mouth. But once you figure it out they're pretty tasty just a
tad chewy is all. Spice is the key to making anything good.

In NC it is illegal to harass any freshwater mussel, except those that are in man made reservoirs and even these have creel limits in the 20 or so range (not
exact). I have never tried to eat one but every indication says that there are a lot better things to eat. Clams are a different story. There are introduced
Asian clams that are choice table fare. If you want to see one, google "corbicula fluminea". They were introduced because they were good to eat,
however, I would not make a habit of eating them for the same toxicological reasons already stated and if I did I would definitely let them purge for a few
days. Snails are not worth your time, except perhaps the Chinese mystery snail which is of the size to be very edible and are popping up in some lakes, that
is if they are not covered up in parasites and the like. I do not know if anyone eats them but is may be worth a search. The Wildlife Commission takes those
mussels pretty serious though, so I would stay away from those for sure.

Not sure if they are really a snale but here in Seattle. We have these giant slugs about 1 1/2" wide and 6-8" long. Huge slimy suckers. I'd have
to be pretty dang hungry. But anyone ever tried slugs like that?

I can attest to clams not being completely edible due to chemical pollutants in the water. We used to have clams in one of our large ponds/tiny
"lakes", before some ya-hoo who was renting here decided that the pond made a perfect place to test leaky, stinky outboard motors... The summer the
clams started disappearing, they tasted like motor oil and gasoline, even after five days of pre-shelling "soaking". An extreme example, I know, but
that pond still has not fully recovered, after nearly twelve years - but it shows how what pollutants clams happen to filter out of the water tend to build up
in the clams.

As has been said, use the clams for bait.

The only difference between a hero and a coward is the direction in which he runs. -- Proverb of the Mongol Horde

Hi NewCaveMan
Mussels can be good eating, especailly cooked in white wine with a bit of garlic or done with chilli. It's important to find out the water quality of where
you are getting them from, and the seasonality. If you are in the UK, the Food Standards Agency puts weekly algal toxin test results from UK coastal sites on
its website and also you can find out the category of waters (in the UK A,B, or C). A really good book for coastal foraging in the UK is The River Cottage
Handbook No.5: Edible Seashore by John Wright. He gives stuff on legal issues, plants, seaweeds, shellfish, crustaceans and some good recipes. I tend to use a
drop net for crabs, or just pick them up at low tide when looking for mussels and edible seaweed.
Snails are delicacies in France and Italy and cooked with garlic or done with tomatoes and chillies. there are some good recipes in some cookbooks
Eat The Seasons website is also good and it covers different regions of the world, lists seasonal foods and some recipe suggestions.

Have Fun

"The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought."
Emma Goldmann

Sorry
I also meant to say, but forgot, my local Environment Agency office and the local Environmental Health office were really helpful as regards the chemical
safety of the local waters and legal stuff about foraging in general and shellfish/crabs in particular.

"The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought."
Emma Goldmann

Just finished eating 6 or 8 freshwater mussels---yummmmm. You can use your imagination for adding taste to them, as Kester noted, as they're rather bland on their own. I marinate in a little wine and crushed garlic just for a few moments after I've shucked them, then roll them in corn meal and fry them--ONLY until the corn meal turns light brown, the same as properly-fried oysters. As with nearly all shellfish I've ever seen--and clams come to mind--overcooking turns them into rubbery and inedible fare.

I have a farm bordered by a small (freshwater) river, in a sparsely-populated area. Fortunately, there are few people in the area to pollute the river, and it originates just a few miles upstream. The water is clean enough to drink, and I occasionally do that, too, when I'm thirsty. There have always been freshwater mussels in this river, and for those who know how to readily find them, there's always a meal on hand for the taking.

If there are any laws in place to prohibit their taking, someone should inform the Racoons (or Otters) who eat them at night and leave their opened shells lying around on the sand bars. I find new shells daily as I wade the river. Not lots of them--but 8 or 10 every thousand feet of river, or so, as though the animal eating them is adding them to its diet--not concentrating on making a meal of mussels, only.

Don't know what motivates their movement about the sand and water, but it's interesting to note the "trail" they leave in the sand (periodically) and follow the trail to where it ends, poke my hand in the sand at the trails-end, and pull up a mussel.

I find them very edible and have no qualms about eating them periodically. There appear to be plenty in the river, and I know how to locate them, so it's an easy meal to enjoy when the notion strikes me. Both clams and oysters have the "poop" in them that someone mentioned, but freshwater mussels have far less, and it's barely noticeable; so I do eat all the mussel that's inside the shell. The water is so clean that I don't need to soak them in clean water for days--they're pretty much pristine the way they are.

I shuck them, rinse them off under running water, put them in a small bowl of wine and crushed garlic for a few moments, then roll them in corn meal, and lightly fry them.